Female targets of QAnon conspiracy attacked up to 10 times more, study finds
November 21, 2022 1 Comment
FEMALE TARGETS OF CONSPIRACY theories propagated by QAnon adherents face up to 10 times more online harassment and abuse than male targets, a behavioral study of pro-QAnon online users has found. QAnon refers to an American-rooted conspiracy theory that views former United States President Donald Trump as a central figure in a behind-the-scenes battle against a sinister cabal of enemies, known as the “deep state”. According to QAnon adherents, “deep state” elites (politicians, entertainment figures and other celebrities) consist of Satan-worshiping cannibals who traffic children for sex. QAnon adherents also believe that these elites will be routed during “The Storm”, a final reckoning between Trump and the “deep state”, which will result in the arrest and physical extermination of all elites.
But in a new study published last month by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a team of researchers posits that not all victims of QAnon adherents are targeted with equal intensity by the conspiracy theorists. Concordia University PhD candidates Marc-André Argentino and Adnan Raja, and ISD analyst Aoife Gallagher, used online data collected in 2020 and early 2021. They categorized the data according to six case studies involving celebrity figures, ranging from Tom Hanks and Anderson Cooper to Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey, all of whom have been prominent targets of QAnon conspiracy theories.
The researchers found that, in each case, online attacks proliferated quickly once individual targets were “labelled and perception [was] hardened in narratives about their alleged role in pedophilia and/or sex trafficking”. What followed was coordinated hate and harassment campaigns that included “forms of high-volume brigading” —a coordinated attack by groups of users united by belonging to the same antagonistic subreddit. In each case, negative sentiments were amplified through the multiplication of coordinated hateful —and often violent— content.
The study shows that “[g]ender-based, racist and anti-LGBTQ+ hate and rhetoric” was present throughout the dataset. However, of all factors —gender, race or sexual orientation— relating to the identities of targets, gender was by far the most determining. According to the data analysis, female targets of QAnon brigading were subjected to volumes of hate and harassment that were as many as ten times higher than those of their male counterparts. The study also shows that this gender-based variation was true in every platform used, such as Facebook (primarily), Instagram and Twitter.
► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 21 November 2022 | Permalink
THE KREMLIN IS PROVIDING “indirect and passive support” to Western neo-Nazi, white supremacist and other far-right groups, in an effort to subvert Western security, according to a leaked report produced by United States intelligence agencies. The report is titled “Russian Federation Support of Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists”. It was produced in July of 2021 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), with information provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
A UNITED STATES ARMY veteran and government informant, who infiltrated the white supremacist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan for over a decade, has spoken publicly about his work for the first time. The informant’s birth name is Joseph Moore, but in 2018 he changed it in order to evade detection by KKK members who might be tempted to track him down. Today the 50-year-old former Army sniper lives with his wife and four children somewhere in Florida, 
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A MEMBER OF THE United States Congress, who previously worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, has called for foreign white supremacist groups to be closely monitored, warning that they have ties to American militants. Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, wrote in a letter that the US should apply the label of “terrorist organizations” to a number of foreign white supremacist groups. She argued that the move would allow US authorities to take more aggressive measures against supporters of such groups inside the US.
A GERMAN COURT HAS temporarily blocked an attempt by the country’s intelligence service to place a domestic far-right party under government surveillance for the first time since the Nazi era. The far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, was established in 2013. It shocked the German political establishment in 2017, when it received nearly 6 million votes, which amounted to 12.6% of the national vote. Since then, however, the AfD has been shunned by other political parties and the German media, for its alleged links with neo-Nazi groups and sympathizers.
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THE INSURGENTS WHO STORMED the United States Capitol Building Complex on January 6 may have unwittingly provided cover for teams of foreign spies, who could have stolen or compromised sensitive electronic equipment. This largely neglected security-related aspect of the attack is discussed in an 
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An Australian far-right militant, who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, used a commercial drone to spy on his targets and plan his attack months in advance, according to newly released information. On March 15, 2019, Brenton Tarrant killed a total of 51 people at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques, in the city of Christchurch. Using an AR-15 rifle, Tarrant, 29, shot his victims one by one, before being stopped by police as he was on his way to a third mosque in the area.
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